When the air gets drier or allergies start kicking in, it probably seems like every other patient is suffering from dry eye. According to the National Eye Institute, five million people age 50 or older have dry eye, and tens of millions more have symptoms. If you’ve established your practice as a dry eye center of excellence, how do you let patients know you can help them?
By being the source of valuable dry eye information explaining the state-of-the art tests and treatment options you offer, patients will refer to you as the expert. That’s why we’ve updated our dry eye series under the guidance of Paul Karpecki, OD of Koffler Vision Group and Darrell White, MD of Skyvision Centers to help you educate patients every step of the way.
Before the appointment:
On your website, email, or social media
Shed tears of joy
When patients are just learning about dry eye, or think they might have it, be sure to share the revamped “What is Dry Eye?” video with them. It talks more about who might be at risk, and how you can help.
Dry your eyes
When patients have dry eye, or think they might have it, share our new “Dry Eye: Tears and Testing” video with them. It explains the importance of the tests you perform to design the best treatment plan for each patient. You can combine this overview with videos on each of the specific tests available in the Echo Library.
During the patient’s visit:
waiting room and in-person consultations
Prevent tears of boredom
Just because patients might need to wait during their visit doesn’t mean that they should be bored to tears. In fact, waiting time is the perfect opportunity to engage patients with relevant information. Feel free to mix in any of the videos in this series with some suggestions below to create the dry eye waiting room environment that suits your practice.
Look them straight in the eye
…and bring up clips like these when you need a quick visual to reference during your chairside conversations.
After the appointment:
Follow-up email
Not a dry eye in the house
Once patients understand their diagnosis, the most important step is to make sure they understand their treatment and stay with it, even if they don’t have symptoms after a while. We help patients understand the importance of adhering to their treatment plan in our revamped “Dry Eye Management” video.
In the blink of an eye
…patients can find relief. “Dry Eye: Treatment Overview” walks patients through the common treatment strategies, including environmental/behavioral changes, eye drops, and even in-office procedures that can treat the underlying cause of their dry eye.
Want more information about how our content can help you establish your practice as the local dry eye expert? Get in touch with us today.